I am Love

I am Love
Io sono l’amore
Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Italy, 2009
Cornerhouse, 10 April 2010

A film about everybody’s favourite daemon, Love, and his/her capacity to transform and destroy.

 We see the collapse of a marriage and the end of a business empire, linked by a quasi-Oedipal relationship between Edoardo (Flavio Parenti) and Emma (Tilda Swinton).  Edoardo is Love’s victim and fool, betrayed by both his mother and his friend Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini), but then again perhaps they (we) are all Love’s fool.  In Elisabetta’s ardour for her friend we see a harbinger of the fire that will engulf Emma, that’s for sure.

 This is a visually stunning film; somehow the screen seems aflame with colour and sunshine most of the time.  And the soundtrack is as intense, John Adams supplying the bulk of the music.  Tilda Swinton and Alba Rohrwacher give outstanding performances.

 There is one significant event in the film that seems improbable or contrived, a slight blemish only since it serves to underline the story’s own inner logic.

 I am Love is a sumptuous feast, full of passion and longing.

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Tags: Alba Rohrwacher, I am Love, Italian film, love, Luca Guadagnino, Tilda Swinton

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